Fr. Philip's Easter Message

Feast of the Resurrection Anno Domini 2017Episcopal Church of the Holy SpiritLebanon, New Jersey

When Jesus was raised from the dead, the liturgy tells us, he made the whole creation new. I’d like us to think deeply about that notion over the Great Fifty Days of Easter. Remember: so in Jesus, so does the Church, and so do the disciples who dare call themselves after his name. We are to preserve, defend and protect the Creation. It is not ours to dominate but to steward, to tend and repair and to do no violence. In an era when some deny or are blinded to the devastation human behavior is wreaking upon God’s Creation, it is even more important that we Christians personally act more and more as Jesus, Renewer of the Earth.

This is not controversial, friends. There is plenty to argue about amongst ourselves these days, but not here. Not this. While the beautiful lilies on this paper act as symbol of new life and hope, we might look more concretely at this image of flower, plant, cultivation and agriculture. Being a follower of Jesus demands that we pay attention to how we leave our footprints behind us, and, if possible, make the place better than we found it. The Scouts are usually right about this kind of thing, and Jesus always is.

The main spiritual truth about our approach to the Creation is principally about humility. Just who do we think we are? We are not rulers of the earth to do whatever we want. We are merely borrowers. In our very complicated, technologically overwhelming era, it is easy to lose sight of this humility. I can excuse my consumption because it happens through clicks on a handheld device. I can excuse my role because I am just a byte in an ever complex network – forget cog and wheel metaphors! It is not humility to throw up my hands and say, “Well, I can’t do anything about it!” That is helplessness and whining. Jesus did not die so I could whine. Yet, it is a truth that we are at the whim of forces seriously beyond our power to influence. Acknowledging that means to be clear-headed about what is at stake in our choices. In this way, we can claw back our power and live undefined by a system of consumerism, material success, and expressions of dominance that drive such abuses of Creation. Members of this community, all of us then, are devout conservatives since by this we mean it in its best and original meaning: to preserve! This is not some notion of governance but of something vastly more profound: the Eastering of God’s Creation. It may mean becoming active and engaged in civil advocacy. But even more, I must refuse to fuel by my behaviors the engines that harm Creation. It is the harder work, but then the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior not only suggests, but demands that we do just that same work! And equally, to call others who may not know this Jesus to learn of him and do the same. It is the Good News & the Good Work. ​ A Blessed Easter to All, Philip Carr-Jones, Priest